Jets win a close one v Devils

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The Jets travelled north craving that winning feeling when they met the Norths Devils yesterday afternoon and they were rewarded with a hard-fought 16-14 victory at Bishop Park.

It was a good afternoon overall for the Ipswich club, with their Colts team getting their day started with a win; which was followed by another victory to their BRL side.

In the main game, the visiting Jets welcomed Liam Capewell back into the side, and his 65 games of Intrust Super Cup experience proved important for the side.

In a game both sides were desperate to win, the Jets employed a slow and steady approach and Carlin Anderson was happy to take the two points on offer inside the first 10 minutes of play to get his side on the board.

The Jets soaked up plenty of pressure from the Devils in the early stages and had to defend repeated sets.

With more that 50 Cup games under this belt, Todd Murphy was a man the Jets had to watch; and in the 22nd minute of the match; they watched him kick, chase and score under the posts to give the Devils the lead.

His conversion and a later penalty kick put the home side further in front, and they took an 8-2 lead into the break.

In a massive blow, the Jets lost Anderson with a broken jaw just before halftime. The talented fullback is the Jets leading points scorer, try scorer and leads the club for line breaks and wouldn’t be easy to replace. Forward leader Nat Neale also injured his hip in the match and the Jets were down to a two-man bench.

Norths were the first to post points after the break, and it was again off Murphy’s boot when he slotted another penalty for his side after the Jets were ruled off-side.

However, there was still plenty of action left in the game, and fresh from his naming in the XXXX Queensland Rangers side, Chris Ash placed a pin-point kick for Wes Conlon, who threw a ball to Richard Pandia to score try number 10 for the Jets in the Intrust Super Cup.

Haydan Lipp banged over the conversion from out wide and the Jets were now down by two.

Jets’ vice-captain Huskie Teutau set about leading the Jets with his first Intrust Super Cup try in his 29th game for the club. He went on a 50m rampage, knocking over Devils in his wake to put his side in front 14-10 with 20 minutes to go.

The next scoring play came from former Jet Luke Pollock, who draw the scores level 14-14 for his current club after he successfully gathered a Murphy cross-field kick.

The Jets regathered off the short kick-off and set about attacking the dead lock. Lipp was pulled down just short of the try line, but in the process, earned his side a penalty which the Jets gladly took to claim the lead with 12 minutes to play.

The Devils attacked the line, and had three repeated sets asking plenty of questions of the Jets’ defence, but the Jets swarmed and somehow found a way to keep the Devils away from any points.

In the next round, the Jets will travel to Townsville to face the Blackhawks, while the Devils will take on the Capras.